Chapter 5 – Call Me Maybe

“Alright so the sacrifices have been made. What does that mean? Is the demon here?” Anita hoped that the answer was no, that they still had time to keep this from happening. Then again, with their luck the answer would be that it was not only here, but that it had brought an army following behind it.

“No the demon is not here. Now that all the steps are complete, and the summoner has the power necessary, the actual summoning will take place. The caster will open the portal to the other world and call the creature through. This will take several hours.”

What? Why? Not that she wasn’t grateful for the buffer or anything, but she would have thought that after all that work and preparation that summoning the thing would be the easiest part.

“Why so long?”

“As you can imagine demons and their kin do not enjoy being told what to do by any creature, especially those they feel beneath them in strength. So most demons tend to resist the pull of the spell for as long as they are able.”

Made sense she supposed. No one liked being ordered around by someone they thought was less than they were. Hell look at how most people felt about middle management. So the question was, what now?

“So how do we find this guy before he finishes this summoning, and if we stop him mid-spell will that be enough? I mean once it’s started it won’t act like a beacon right? Calling this thing here no matter what.” That would be worse than just letting the summoner finish. If this thing came through and there was no one on this side with even a working knowledge of how to contain it they would all be beyond screwed.

“If the caster can be halted before the demon steps through the portal created by the power vacuum, then that will be the end of this. Without the caster continuously pouring power into the void there will be no way for the demon to break through the barrier between its world and our own.”

Edward had heard enough, their options were simple, either stop the summoner or stop the demon. That’s all there was to it now. Stopping the summoner would be the easy road, a bullet to the head or a snap of one neck and it would all be over, they were focusing on the wrong contingency plan here.

“What if the demon is through, what then?” That was the shit storm they should all be focusing on. Not if they got there in time, but if they didn’t.

Unfortunately no one seemed to have any answers. Every demon was different, yet still kind of the same, in that they were un-killable and damn near un-containable.

Anita glanced over at Edward, ever since the sun had risen and all the vamps had been pulled into slumber they had been working together to try and find this guy.

“This is getting us nowhere, there are simply too many places this guy could be hold up at, we need to come at this from a different angle.” She agreed with him of course, hours of coming up empty handed wasn’t doing anyone any good, but what other option was there.

“Like what?” It wasn’t like they could just go door to door asking if anyone knew someone capable of bringing forth a demon.

“We split up. You go to some other magic users you know of, see if any of them maybe got a stronger reading on where this thing was going down when that magical blast hit everyone. I’ll head over to the cop shop and look into some missing persons reports or the like for people who lived in the first city the sacrifices started in, but who also have ties back to here.”

Good idea, maybe her brain was just stalled out by the idea that she was going to most likely be facing down a demon by the end of the day with no plan to show for it.

“We meet back up in about three hours unless we find something sooner, compare notes see if we missed anything.” Without waiting for her agreement he just walked off towards RPIT, she supposed in a situation like this his agreement was all that mattered to him. Shrugging she headed off towards Animators Inc, if anyone at least had an idea of where to start it would be Manny.

God she hoped this worked.

Bartolome and Valentina watched as this mad woman began her chant, she’d been talking to them ever since they arrived about why they were here, so they already knew what she was calling to. The zombies were the sacrifice of death, but they were something far worse, they were the bait for the trap. They were this creatures prey of choice.

After spending so many centuries as the apex predator, after being the thing that most feared in the night, being considered prey again was beyond disconcerting. Their only chance now would be if Jean-Claude and Anita found them before this creature answered its new masters call.

“Tell us summoner, what is it that you believe you will accomplish with this madness? Even if this creature does bend to your will, which I doubt, what could possibly be the purpose of killing all the vampires of Saint Louis?” While Bartolome knew that his kin here in Missouri were not the best of his kind, they were far from the worst. The worst were members of the Council.

“Oh, you still don’t understand, none of you do. I’m not trying to kill the vampires of your precious Saint Louis. No! I am going to kill all the vampires everywhere. Your kind are a plague on this earth, you believe yourselves entitled to anything and everything you wish just because you want it. The vampire executioners were a good start to ending the problem, but they are too few and the laws constrain them and your kind corrupt them, we need something more. Something that won’t be swayed by your devils tongue, someone that can’t be taken in by your powers. We need this creature, this killer, to come and free us from your hold.”

“And after you are all freed what then? What will become of this creature that lives to kill our kind once we are no more?” What would this demon do once its purpose was complete?

“Then I will send it home, back to its dimensions where it can continue to kill your kind there.” This woman was insane.

There were thousands of vampires across the globe, and their numbers grew greater each passing night, humans voluntarily crossed over to their side now. In droves. Even if this creature was created to solely kill vampires, even it would need years to kill them all, and nothing would stay contented with servitude and slavery for so long. This demon would turn on this woman the first opportunity that presented its self, then chaos would reign. He supposed he could find some level of joy in that knowledge should he meet his end this night.

As the portal grew brighter and brighter he looked over at Valentina, she was the closest he had to a companion during his long years trapped on this earth in the body of a child. Though she was younger than he in image, she was as close to his equal as he could hope to ever find.

She understood the struggle of his existence in a way that no other vampire or creature ever would or ever could. She understood how it felt to be centuries old and yet not be able to walk the streets they hunt after dark without their prey asking where his mother was. She understood the stabbing pain that question would always cause, bringing memories of happier times and happier lives flooding back in riveting color and clarity. She understood and shared in his life, separate but together, and now it would seem she would understand and share in his death.

As the light of the portal became so bright it was blinding he knew, the creature had finally found its way through. Their death was at hand. His eye unused to such brightness were forced to close, but even in blindness he heard the breaking of glass and the pounding of booted feet.

“Stop!” Anita’s strong voice cried, echoing off the walls.

The calvary had arrived, too little too late. The demon was already here.

A/N – So next chapter, FAITH!. I’m so excited and I just can’t hide it …. wait what? Sorry I just broke into internet song there, don’t know where that came from. Anyway, now I really do need to decide on what Faith to bring across, but they’re all so good. Don’t worry I work best under pressure. I think. We we’ll see. Until then drop me a line and let me know what you think so far.